Why do some conversations seem to flow easily, while others careen off the cliff faster than we can intercede? So much of what feels satisfying/empowering or isolating/troubling in life seems to be related to the positive or negative emotions resulting from our conversations with each other. What are we missing? Read more

We read in Luke’s Gospel that Jesus grew in wisdom and grace. but, wasn’t Jesus divine? Wasn’t he God-incarnate? Wasn’t he God’s only son? Ipso facto, he must have been omniscient and, if so, why would he have needed to grow in wisdom and in grace? Read more

Enlightenment is the ultimate human level of higher consciousness. It is also the most intriguing change of all. There are those who seek it and never find it. Others gradually reach it after years of spiritual practice. And others who experience an instantaneous awakening, Read more

There is an important difference between free will – the ability to do as I please – and freedom – the ability to do as pleases God. Free will is a faculty that can be used for good or bad. Freedom, on the other hand, is always good because it is the essence of the soul and the object of enlightenment. Read more

At times the sense of being alone can make one yearn to forget that feeling of alienation. We want to lose ourselves, to feel an identity with others and belong. And so people drink. Or do drugs. Anything to forget themselves, to shake that horrible sense of a solitary existence. There is a better way. Read more

How did the three disciples – or Jesus for that matter – recognize Moses or Elijah? Photography was 1,800 years in the future and there were no graven or visual representations of either man available. What actually happened on Mount Thabor? Was the Transfiguration a dream? A vision? Read more

Is it even possible to respond to the world without letting it all “get” to us? Can we be participants who somehow remain untouched by our surroundings? Those are important questions because most of us choose to become personally involved. We’d rather act out our humanity before we aspire to rise above it. Read more

I had messed with his reality in several ways. By folding the tarp, I was sending his future speeding back to his present, and increasing his ability to navigate space. By playing with the stones he was crawling upon, I sent him back in time and then accelerated him forward in time. Read more

The challenges of living finally get our attention, if we are lucky. They become their own crises, the moment when we feel so bad we finally have to acknowledge our pain. Wandering about in the dark wood, lost in one’s own labyrinth, each person must seek his own way out, away from the minotaur of anxiety. Read more

I hope you’re not so foolish as to think that humans – or indeed animals – invented families? Families are much more ancient than that. I hope you’re not so foolish as to think that humans – or indeed birds – invented migration? Migration is much older than that. Read more